PokeWar, Volume 2: Cataclysm
by Gillaechus
Summary: The events at Hermit's Hill have driven Ash out of hiding, though it's more important now he's unseen than ever. After a year hiding in various places across Kanto and training his new student, Maki Suma, the two will set in motion their plan to derail the Alpha Corporation— murderers, torturers, and aspiring tyrants. But they won't do it alone. It's time to call on old friends.
1. Controversy

**Chapter 1: Controversy**

"Would you stop being so nervous?!" Suma exclaimed, a grin on her face.

Ryuji shifted uncomfortably as he buckled himself into the passenger's seat of her car. He wasn't nervous, though he didn't really expect her to know that at this point. They hadn't seen much of each other over the past year and he was really beginning to struggle with it… He _did_ appreciate how honest she was, and really there was nothing he could pick out that she was actually doing _wrong_. She told him well in advance every time she had needed to make a trip out of the country for work. She always called, always tried to let him know what was going on. And when she decided she was going to quit her job— despite the protests of the rest of her family and friends— he supported her. Granted, he wasn't quite sure about her _reasons_ for quitting; she never showed an interest in Pokemon training before. But this _was_ Maki Suma, after all. A woman driven by passion, and whatever it was she found out there in Kanto certainly lit quite the fire in her.

He was also thankful that she was up front about her mentor, Mr. Yamamoto. She gave him as much detail as she could about what they did when she would go out to visit with Yamamoto. Called almost every day she was out there— and considering that she spent almost two weeks out of every month there for the past 8 months, _and_ that she had to cover the long distance charges for the call, she really demonstrated a lot of determination in keeping him up to date and being considerate of his feelings. His friends had started to give him weird looks after the first few months, but he didn't really start to feel… the way he did, until the past couple months. Honestly he didn't have a name for it until this moment, until she had playfully urged him to "stop being so nervous". Oh Suma, always dancing over egg shells.

"I'm not nervous," he said, trying to sound cool and collected. "I just… I have no idea where we're going." He said the last with a laugh, trying to lighten himself up a little. _You don't get much time with her, you moron_ , he thought. _Just… just try to enjoy it. Boy, she looks pretty today…_ He suddenly realized she was staring back at him. She must have said something. Whoops. "Uh… what did you say?" he asked.

She smiled that smile, the one she smiled every time he did this. And he did it often enough that she had a special smile just for the occasion. Cue the heat to the face. "I said, I'm taking you back to my place."

Ryuji scratched his head, "Uh, wait, what? I thought we were going out for dinner."

Suma pulled out from the driveway of his flat and sped off down the road. She nodded, "Yeah, we are. Out to my place!" She held up a finger without looking at him as she continued to drive, " _And!,_ some people will be there waiting for us!"

Ok, now he was getting frustrated. "Suma, I thought it was just going to be you and I tonight…"

Suma shot him a nervous glance. Whoops, that might have sounded a little sharper than he meant it to. "Yeah, sorry about that babe," she said. "I was hoping this little get together would be a little later this week, but one thing led to another, and… well, you know how these things work." She said the last with a chuckle and a shrug.

"Well, actually no, I _don't_ know how these things work," Ryuji said, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice and probably failing, "because I don't have any idea what this is all about."

She made a face. "What are you _taaalkin'_ about?" she said, "It's just a bunch of people gettin' together!"

He couldn't help but smile a little. She knew he was frustrated and she was being silly to try and cheer him up and it was working but gosh dangit he had a bone to pick with her. " _Come_ on, Suma," he said, slathering on the sarcasm, "after a year and a half I know you well enough to know when you're hiding something from me. First it's 'I'm picking you up and we're going out for dinner'. Then it's 'dinner at my place'. _Then_ it's 'dinner at my place with a bunch of people you don't know'. By definition I'm already here under false pretenses!" She laughed at that last bit. "Now, _tell_ _-_ me-what-we're-doin'-or-else!" The whole thing ran together like a slur and she laughed really loudly.

"Alright, alright," she said, laughing. "We're meeting with my mentor tonight, and some of his associates."

Ok, _now_ he was intrigued. "Ah, so I finally get to meet the mysterious Yamamoto, eh? But what does this have to do with me?"

She gave him a coy look, "You're a Pokemon trainer, aren't you?"

He nodded dryly, "Yeah, and so's about half of the _rest_ of the world's population."

She groaned and threw her head back a little, "Ugh, you're such a _butt-hooollle."_

He grinned and nodded, "The biggest."

She sighed and gave him a smile, then returned her attention to the road. They were about to get on the high-way. "Look, will you just… trust me? I can't really explain it all right now. But, when you get there, not only will I explain _this_ , but I'll explain why I became a Pokemon trainer."

And that shut him up, because she struck the nerve again. He was really going to have to figure out just what it was he was feeling. But something in him really didn't want to deal with it right now. So he just sat back for the ride as they made their way to Goldenrod, where her apartment was.

* * *

Ryuji stared wide eyed at the group that sat casually in Suma's living room. He stood warily at the threshold of the kitchen, where Suma was preparing a few snacks for the group of five people while the others chatted amongst themselves. There were a couple faces he recognized, but not all of them had names in his mind. One of them he assumed to be Yamamoto. He wasn't the oldest in the group, but he was pretty close if Ryuji had it figured right. He stood over Suma's television which sat across from the couch and chairs in which everyone was seated. He looked pretty frustrated too, and Ryuji didn't realize until a couple minutes into watching him that it was probably because the man hadn't _owned_ a television in the past ten years.

The man looked over his shoulder at the group seated behind him, and said, "Dawn, can you give me a hand with this?"

She grinned at him. "And why did you pick me, Mr. Ketchum?"

He groaned. "Because you're the youngest and most likely to know how to work this blasted thing."

Dawn laughed, and so did the woman seated next to her, who said, "Not anymore, if we hear right!"

Dawn winked and said, "That's right. Our old teacher's got a new protege."

The man gave the second woman a playfully mean look, "May, unless _you_ want to be on tech duty, I suggest you save the sass for later."

May raised her hands in a gesture of mock surrender, "Of course, Sifu."

The man groaned, looking back to Dawn. "Dawn, _please_ help me out."

She stood, laughing, "Yeah, yeah." She crossed the room and he began explaining to her just what it was he wanted her to do— and his directions started with turning it on.

But Ryuji had no time to be amused. He rushed into the kitchen and tugged on Suma's sleeve as he continued to peer as much as he could around the wall through to the living room. "Suma, Suma."

She chuckled, probably knowing what had him so worked up. "Yes, dear?"

"Um, did you realize that you have two League Champions and two Gym Leaders sitting in your living room?" Ryuji asked her sardonically.

Suma nodded as she began pouring water from a pitcher into glasses on a tray. "I sure did, sweetie."

He turned back to face her and whispered, exasperated. " _Why didn't you tell me_? I'd have worn something nicer!"

She pouted at him, playful. "You wouldn't dress nicely for your _girlfriend_?" He gave her the biggest, most unamused face he could muster and she laughed at him. He shook his head. She smiled, "Just go on out there and sit. I've got the food in the oven, it will be ready in an hour or so. Besides, we'll be getting started soon."

 _With what_? _,_ he questioned. But he knew better than to ask at this point. So, he just turned about and went back towards the living room, steeling himself as he crossed the threshold. And yes, _now_ he was nervous. He did his best to get past it as he moved past the couch towards the last available arm chair, the one closest to the door. Dawn was still helping who Ryuji assumed was Yamamoto while May and the other two continued to chat from where they sat. May and another woman were listening to something a man seated opposite Ryuji was saying, both of them seeming quite surprised to hear it.

"And… she said yes," the man spiky-haired man finished.

The orange haired woman sat back, "Well, I never imagined the day would _actually_ come."

May laughed, "Yeah, you'd think the Joys would have all warned their daughters about you by now."

The orange haired woman did her best to stifle a laugh herself, and the spiky-haired man frowned. She gave him an amused look, "Oh, come on, Brock. We all found your 15-year old crush on _every_ Nurse Joy to be an endearing thing, but you have to admit they seemed to feel _kinda_ creeped out every once in a while."

May held up a finger, " _Especially_ because they were all mostly ten or _fifteen_ years older than you!"

The man smiled and laughed nervously, "Well, yeah I guess that's all true. But hey, I found my Joy in the end! Even if it _was_ one of their daughters." Ryuji frowned at that, because it _did_ sound creepy.

The orange haired woman said, "How old did you say she was?"

The man called Brock hunched a little and answered in a somewhat small voice. "She's… twenty-five?" he said, as if it were a question.

Both women groaned disgustedly, but insincerely. "Aw, what's the _matter_ with you?" the Orange haired woman said, throwing a pillow at him.

"Cradle-robber!" May added sarcastically.

Brock blushed, "Come on, Misty! When you're in love, you're in love!" Both women continued to groan and poke fun at him, and Brock crossed his arms and looked away, as if he were done with the conversation. Ryuji found himself wondering what could bring such an eclectic group together. He didn't know their names right off the bat, but he recognized both Misty and Brock as Kanto Region Gym Leaders— he especially recognized Brock, who was also a successful Pokemon Breeder. Brock looked the part of a Kanto-bred man, tall and dark and formidable in stature. And while he could see the Kantonese in Misty— she was tall and her skin rich in color— he also wondered if she had roots in another country, perhaps Sinnoh or Hoenn.

And the other two needed no introduction for Ryuji, for he knew them well (or at least, knew well _of_ them). Dawn Bellamy, the Sinnoh Region League Champion five years running now. She was short and a little fuller in form than the other two women (characteristic of a Sinnoan woman). She was certainly very pretty, and Ryuji imagined the sheen of her dark, almost _blue_ hair would have turned a few heads as she walked around Goldenrod. And the other woman, May Maple, was the Hoenn Region League Champion… probably something like seven or eight years running now. She was quite thin with brown hair and blue eyes, and full of spunk— almost a perfect match for the first result in a google search for your stereotypical Hoennite woman.

Ryuji's thoughts were interrupted as the man at the television turned around. "Alright, well it looks like this is every one we can expect," he said, seeming somewhat disappointed. The group before him was quiet, and they also seemed to share in his disappointment. He went on, "Some of you know why you are here, and others," he glanced at Ryuji, "are probably wondering what this is all about. I've called this little meeting because you are among the people I respect most," the man said, pausing. Ryuji swallowed a frog to hear himself counted among such an esteemed company. "There have been some developments over the past few years in our society, and as you know, it's caused some division amongst the trainers and enthusiasts of the world."

Suma moved quietly into the room with a tray bearing glasses of water and a few snacks, crackers and cheeses. She passed the glasses around and set the tray on the table sitting in front of the couch. She offered a glass to "Mr. Yamamoto", but he declined and Suma sat on the couch next to May as the man continued speaking. "I learned a week ago that the program we're about to watch was going to air, and when I did I suggested this meeting to Ms. Maki here, whom you all just met. I thought it might be helpful bringing you up to speed with… where all of this is going." And with that, the man turned and fidgeted a bit with the remote before moving to stand near where Brock sat.

Ryuji was familiar with the program, it ran on the channel run by Suma's old employer. It was something of a talk show, with a special interest in innovations in Pokemon related technology and other developments. They were just about finished with a demonstration of some new kind of Pokeball. The hostess of the show smiled cheekily as she thanked the developer and dismissed him to the sound of canned applause. She crossed the set to where a couple arm chairs were placed, presumably her home-base throughout the show. "Our next guest," she said to the camera, "is the CEO and Lead Developer for a young and controversial corporation. Over the past year or so since they were founded, they've taken the market by storm with their impressive and revolutionary technologies. Today, he's here to tell us about their latest product— the namesake for their company and the device that just might change Pokemon Training forever. Please, welcome Neji Noboru!"

The canned applause was turned extra high as a stocky man in a fine black suit with a pencil-thin mustache came from somewhere in the back, making his way for where the hostess sat waiting. She stood as he reached her, and they both greeted each other with a courteous bow before taking their seats.  
The man grinned toothily as the applause died down, "Thank you for having me, Ms. Ara."

The hostess smiled back, "It's an honor, Mr. Neji!"

He raised both of his hands in a pleading gesture, "Please, call me Noboru."

The woman nodded with another smile. "So, we've all _heard_ about it, and the market certainly exploded when it was released to the public! And as— I'm sure— you're aware by now, your new product is the talk of the town: some good, some bad! What can _you_ tell us that we don't already know?"

The man nodded and sat forward, gesturing with his hands as he spoke. "Well, we at Alpha Corp. believe in providing _each_ and _every_ trainer with the tools they need to become their very best— it's a motivation that, in part, inspired our name. The Alpha Machine is the centerpiece around which we have built our company. It was the original idea, the whole reason we even decided to set up shop. The Pokemon Training Formulas and the new Pokeballs were all just stepping stones to providing the resources we needed in order to get this product up and running."

The woman interjected, "And it's been up and running for, what, almost six months now?"

The man smiled, "It sure has! And while we hoped it would do well, we _never_ expected it to take off the way it has."

The woman sat back, "Well, good for you. It's always nice to see someone's dream take off like that."

The man laughed, "Hey, I definitely feel like I'm _living_ a dream." Several seated in the living room at Suma's scoffed at that. Ryuji definitely found something offsetting about the guy, but didn't think it was _that_ big of a deal…

"Well," the woman continued, "what can you tell us about how the machine works?"

As the man spoke, a picture in picture frame appeared in the lower left of the screen, showing the device with what looked like sound waves coming out of it. "The Alpha Device uses super and subsonic sound waves to interact with the mind of a Pokemon. Ordinarily, a trainer has to give commands to their Pokemon during battle, and while that only takes a few seconds for your Pokemon to process, those few precious seconds could be the difference between victory and defeat. Whats more, they have to spend hours upon _hours_ working through their techniques _outside_ of battle, and while that's all well and good we wondered if there was a better way."

"And is the Alpha Machine the better way?" the woman asked.

The man nodded with a smug look in his eye. "We at Alpha Corp. think so. And the market would seem to agree," he said the last with a shrug.

"Well, there's no question that your technology is a game changer," the woman commented, "but some wonder if that change is for the better."

The man nodded, feigning a sad look. "Change can be difficult to accept, Ms. Ara. We weren't surprised to see some people receive our product poorly."

The woman gave him an almost incredulous look, "You might say that's almost an _understatement_ , Mr. Neji. Upon it's release, thousands lined up in protest at every major retailer across the globe. They think your machine takes things too far, claiming even that it's _mind control_."

The man sat forward again, visibly perturbed. "I can understand why they might feel that way— never before have we been able to interact with Pokemon the way this machine can allow us to. But let me assure you Ms. Ara, _and_ our viewers at home, that we have _thoroughly_ tested this device and can confidently inform you that there are _no_ negative consequences for using this device, and that it will _not_ harm your Pokemon. As I said before," he said, leaning back again, "this device allows the trainer a new channel for interacting with their Pokemon. It's certainly not _mind_ control— that's pure science fiction, and those who entertain such ideas are merely superstitious and insecure."

The woman raised her eyebrows, "Those are some strong words, Mr. Neji."

The man shrugged, "Well, can you blame me? Those weren't just _protests_ , Ms. Ara. People _rioted_ , destroying establishments of business and even injuring those who worked there— _as well_ as other customers. Tell me, do those seem like the actions of a rational people?"

The woman shook her head, smiling. "No, I suppose not."

Neji nodded, satisfied. "And that's fine— what we're doing is unlike what _any_ other corporation can say for themselves right now. We're going to make the Alpha Machine more and more available to trainers across the globe, and it's not only going to revolutionize the way we do Pokemon battles. It will change _countless_ other industries as well: construction, exploration, fire and rescue, and who knows what else. There are _no limits_ to the possibilities when one explores the _vastness_ of the potential of human and Pokemon partnership. And really, thats what the Alpha Machine is all about: taking the possibilities to their maximum potential."

"From alpha to omega, you might say," the woman added with a chuckle.

Neji laughed, "Now you've got it, Ms. Ara."

She leaned forward, "Well, I hear you've prepared a demonstration for us?"

The man nodded and stood, "Yes, we've—

And suddenly the television turned off. All eyes turned to Mr. Yamamoto, who held the remote in his hand. He stood silently for a moment, then said, "I'm sorry. But I couldn't possibly take watching him use that _thing_ on another poor and innocent creature." He turned and crossed the room, standing before the group. Looking from face to face, he said, "So? What do you think?"

Brock cleared his throat, staring into the floor, "Well, I think it's going to give trainers everywhere who use it a false sense of confidence. They'll begin to expect Pokemon to be submissive to them from the get go, and before you know it the relationships between Pokemon and humans will be so superficial that we'll entirely alienate them."

Yamamoto nodded, "Yeah, that's probably true." He looked around, "Anyone else?"

May made a disgusted face, "I mean all you have to do is _look_ at the guy, you can _tell_ he's not being honest about his machine. He says it doesn't harm the Pokemon, but I don't buy it: a harmless machine doesn't provoke violent protests like the one's we've seen on the news. I heard that during their beta testing thousands of Pokemon were killed in failed operations."

Dawn nodded, concern in her features, "I think everyone is right, but I don't think that's why we're here."

Yamamoto's eyebrows leapt. "Oh, is that so?"

She gave him an unamused look. "We all know you too well, Ash. There's more to this than just a few negative consequences— albeit, _pretty_ negative consequences. You went _missing_ for almost _ten years_ , and suddenly you call a meeting together half-way across the globe… something happened, and if it involves this device or whatever, that's fine. But just tell us what this is about already."

Misty smiled and shrugged, "You know she's right, Ash. It's time you started being honest with us. _All_ of us. I might know more than they do, but even I don't really know what it is you want from us right now."

Yamamoto… Ash?, nodded with a sigh. He sat upon the floor, and everyone rose to join him. Suma nodded at the circle that was forming on the floor, and Ryuji moved nervously to join them. He began his tale, "A little less than a year ago, my wife was murdered right before my eyes." That had everyone's attention. "And while he didn't mean to do it, she was killed by my very own friend, my Charizard. He was under the control of one of those devices," he said that pointing to the television behind him. "But my newest pupil," he said, gesturing to where Suma sat in the circle, "intervened, sending her newly captured Abra into battle. Abra was able to evade Charizard's attacks and disarm the man, but not before _he_ killed two more of Suma's friends and _Charizard's fire_ burned down my home."

Several in the group glanced at Suma, who was staring into the floor. Ryuji couldn't believe what he was hearing. The man continued, "Even more disturbing, once he was disarmed he fought to free himself Charizard's grasp and threw himself into the flames that engulfed the cottage... there was nothing we could do to stop him. Now, before he died he told me that he had come not for my Pokemon, but for me. He told me that he and the people who made that device intended to use it on the world's legendary Pokemon, that their real goal was to usurp control of the forces of this world and to gain control of it. I left Hermit's Hill because of _this_ , because our world is facing a great threat from people with no regard for the lives of humans or Pokemon. I called you here because someone needs to _stop_ them."

* * *

Suma slowed as she approached Ryuji's flat and pulled into the driveway. Apart from their conversation in the kitchen earlier that evening, Ryuji had said very little to Suma throughout the night. He knew it was making her nervous, because that _tended_ to happen when he was feeling upset. He wanted to try and ease her mind a little, but there was the whole mess of his feelings about things in general right now and then _this night_ on top of all of it… he wouldn't have known what to say even if he tried. And fortunately, he didn't have to, because Suma decided to break the ice. "So," she said somewhat cautiously, "sorry to kind of spring all of that on you."

He gave her an incredulous look. "'Sorry to kind of spring that on you'? Suma, your mentor sounds like he wants to start some kind of social _uprising_ or something!"

She looked at him, sincerity in her eyes, "Can you blame him? Everything he's lost, and what those men want to do…"

He shook his head, "How can you even be _sure_ that's what they really want? The guy in the interview doesn't seem _that_ terrible."

That comment rubbed her wrong, and he knew it the moment he said it. "Ryuji, don't sit there and pretend it's not a big deal. I watched your face throughout the whole interview, and you looked shocked. You're just as concerned as the others are, and you knew even less than they did about all this. Don't…" she paused, her emotions starting to run, "don't shrug this off because I ruined your plans for the night and you got _nervous._ "

And that was it. "For Arceus' _sake_ , Suma, I'm not _nervous_ , ok?" he shouted, his own emotions well past running now. "I'm _angry_ , Suma! Angry!" She was definitely caught off guard by his sudden outburst, but he was too upset now to really restrain himself. She just sat there speechless, looking very uncomfortable, as all of his thoughts and feelings from the past eight months poured out. "Do you realize that there were a couple times where I didn't see you for almost two months straight? And when I _did_ see you, I had to _steal_ the time from other things and probably saw you for a handful of hours before you disappeared for _another_ several weeks. My friends and family started urging me to break up with you _months_ ago, because they thought that no one who took a relationship seriously would _do_ all of that. But I stuck with it, not only because I loved you but because I wanted to be supportive of you."

Suma wasn't even looking at him anymore, and tears had started to collect in the corners of her eyes. But it was all coming out of him now and he wasn't very good at stopping… "I didn't know you were in danger, Suma. I didn't know you witnessed _three murders_ , that you had gotten caught up in some kind of… some kind of _crazy_ take-over-the-world plot. First I was just _mad_ , but now I'm _scared_ for you, Suma! Am I going to be up at night, _wondering_ if I'm going to see you again?!"

Suma sniffled a little. "I-I don't _have_ to do it… if you feel _that_ strongly about it…"

Ryuji sighed and and gestured with his hands. " _Yes,_ you do. I know you, Suma— once you've gotten something into your heart there's no satisfying you unless you follow it. And I wouldn't want you to not do it, anyway, I see how its changed you, how you've become a fuller person because of it. That's not even why I'm mad."

She gave him a confused look at that. "Th-then why are you…?"

And now he knew why, but he _really_ didn't want to say. "Nevermind," he said, crossing his arms and looking out the window. And then she made a face and smacked him. "Ow! What was that for?!" he cried, turning back to her.

"You just spent the past couple minutes _yelling_ at me, you jerk!" she retorted. "Now at least tell me _why_!"

" _Fine_!" he shouted back. "I _missed_ you, ok?!"

" _What_?!" she exclaimed.

" _Yeah_ , I _missed_ you!" he repeated. She was dumbfounded, and he just spilled his guts. "My job has started taking off and you're never here for me to share the excitement with you and you're off out there trying to _change_ the world and I don't get to be a part of it and I _hate_ that because I _love_ you and want us to be a part of what's important to each other!" And suddenly she started laughing at him and shoving him and that made him even _madder_ because she was gonna take him seriously! _This woman!_ "Stop _laughing_ at me, Suma!"

" _Awwww_ ," she exclaimed with laughter, taking his left arm and cuddling up close to him, "I missed you too." He was trying really hard not to laugh and let her disarm his anger but she was _really_ good at it and ugh. She looked up at him, smiling but a little remorseful. "I'm sorry honey, I didn't mean to make you feel shut out…"

He nodded, resting his head on top of hers. "I know you didn't… I just… I just want to be a part of your world, Suma. And I want you to be a part of mine."

She giggled. "It's like you're the _girl_ in the relationship. So emotional!"

"Hey, I'm a _man_!" he retorted, trying to shove her off his arm and failing miserably as she laughed hysterically. "I do _manly_ things, like pee _standing up!_ "

She nodded sardonically with the sweetest smile she could probably conjure, "Mhm, you're a real toughie."

He groaned, "I hate you."

"You _love_ me," she said with a grin.

"This _sucks_!" he exclaimed.

"You _love_ it!" she replied. He sighed and she giggled again, "You can _have feelings_ , Ryuji. Actually, I've never dated a man who could be open the way you just were. I think that's _very_ manly."

His eyebrows jumped and he grunted a little like a bear, "Oh, yeah?"

She nodded, kissing his cheek. "Mhm!"

""At's _right_ , it's manly!" he exclaimed. "And don't you _forget_ it!" And she laughed at him again.


	2. To Intervene

**Chapter 2: To Intervene**

"A-are you close?" Ryuji stuttered into the phone.

"Mhm, I'll probably be there in fifteen or twenty minutes," Suma answered. "I can't talk long though, honey, I'm driving."

"R-right, sorry," Ryuji said. "I just wanted to see where you were."

Suma was quiet for a moment. "Is everything ok, Ryuji? You sound a little… I don't know, upset."

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, trying to sound more settled than he felt. "I'm just nervous, I guess."

He could almost hear her smile through the phone, and he was glad she chose not to rib him about _actually_ being nervous this time. "It'll be fine, honey. They really appreciate you letting us host the meeting at your place, it's going to be much easier for all of them to get there since it's so expensive to stay in the city."

He couldn't stop himself from grinning a little. "Well, I'm glad I can help, I guess. I don't know how much more I'll be able to do."

Suma chuckled. "Ryuji, if he thinks _I_ can make a difference in this, there's no way _you_ can't— you've been training Pokemon for almost ten years, and I've only had eight months."

He nodded, mostly for himself— not like she could see it. "Ok. Is everyone else on their way?"

"Yes, they should be there soon," she said. "I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah," he said. "I love you."

Another audible grin that put him a little more at ease. "I love you too, Ryuji."

He hung up, then moved out of his bedroom towards the living room. It wasn't the biggest of places— the front door opened to a living room that doubled as a dining room, with a table in the back corner on the right where he ate his dinners. A couch divided the living/dining room from the little kitchenette on the left behind it, and a small hallway at the back led to the little bathroom on the left and his bedroom on the right. It was enough for him, and the occasional friend or two he'd have over now and again. He _was_ a little nervous about cramming six more people in here, and then a little more so about about everything _else_ that was going on...

But he was determined to learn as much as he could about all of this. He'd already seen what the Alpha Machine could do, attended the many exhibitions promoting it and saw many battles where it was use. And yes, it _did_ often turn the tables in ways that impressed him, but he _also_ knew Pokemon well enough to see that something was off about them when they were under it's influence. He already didn't like it, and Ketchum's words about it and about the Alpha Corp. would have been enough to take his distaste for the whole thing and turn it into revulsion and alarm. But when he learned that the danger had even come upon Suma... that drove it home just enough to convict him about the whole thing. There was too much at stake for him not to get involved now.

A knock at the door broke his thoughts, and he crossed the room to open it. Outside stood two of the women from last week, Dawn and May. They smiled and greeted him, and he invited them inside. "Can I get you ladies anything to drink?" he asked.

Dawn shook her head, "No, but thank you for offering."

May grinned, "That Suma was right, he _is_ a good host."

He chuckled nervously and smiled, "Uh, thanks I guess." Both women laughed as they seated themselves at the couch, and he closed the door and pulled a chair from the dining table to sit across from them. "So," he began, "I guess we didn't really get to introduce ourselves last week, things got so serious. My name's Himura Ryuji."

Dawn smiled and stuck out her hand, "I'm Dawn Bellamy," she said. Ryuji leaned forward and took her hand awkwardly— he found the greeting favored by the southern regions to be somewhat uncomfortable. But, far be it from him to be unsociable (he'd never hear the end of it from Suma).

May reached out her hand as well, "And I'm May Maple." Ryuji took it politely, and was glad _that_ little part of it was over. She grinned again, "So, we've heard all about you from your lady— she thinks you're pretty keen."

Ryuji scratched his head and laughed a little, "Oh, is that what she said? I'm pretty keen, huh?"

Dawn laughed at May, "You're showing your age, May."

May frowned and swatted Dawn on the arm, "Oh, _stop_ it, you're only three years younger than I am." She looked back to Ryuji. "She told us to have you tell us how the two of you met."

Ryuji felt his eyebrows jump, "What? She's been back and forth from the city for a week to visit you, why didn't _she_ tell you?"

May crossed her arms and sat back expectantly. "She said _you_ were the one who told it best."

Ryuji sighed, "Oh, did she now?" She only said that because she _knew_ it made him uncomfortable to tell the story because of how personal it was and right now she was probably having a good chortle at his expense and he was going to pinch that daggum woman when she got here. He nodded. "Sure, well, I suppose she also told you to pester me until I told you?"

May laughed, "She did, actually, yes."

Dawn gave Ryuji a mock sympathetic look and shoved May a little, "Aw, don't torture the poor man, May."

May made a sassy face at her, "Hey, _I want to hear the story."_

Ryuji shook his head, "It's fine, I'll tell it." Both women gave him their attention. "Two years ago, I was working for the Goldenrod Pokemon Gym. My coworkers dared me to challenge the gym leader to a battle, just to see what would happen. So I did."

"What happened?" May asked.

Ryuji shrugged, "Well, I won."

"Oh, neat," May said. "So, where does Suma come into the picture?"

"Well, she was still working for _her_ most recent employer, Kotobuki TV," he replied. "I guess the match was kind of a big deal in the city, people were talking about it a lot; some unknown kid beats the Gym Leader on his first try. So, her boss had her come down to the gym and interview me for their daily news program."

Dawn smiled, "Oh, thats cute. So, what, did you go find her later and ask her on a date?"

Ryuji laughed, embarrassment beginning to spark in his gut. "Well, no, not later."

"Oh?" she said. "Well, what then?"

"Well, I kind of asked her…" he paused, "I kind of asked her mid-interview."

Both women took a moment to process what he said, then began to fight growing grins. "O-oh," Dawn replied. "And I assume they edited that out later?"

Embarrassment was now a flame. "Um, well, no," he said, staring holes into the floor. "The interview was live, so… they really couldn't edit, you know… a live feed…" he trailed off. And now neither woman could contain themselves any longer and burst out laughing. And this is why he dreaded telling this story, because this was _always_ how people reacted.

Dawn covered her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter, "Oh, I'm sorry, Ryuji. That's just… quite a story." May was still inconsolable, almost off the couch at this point rolling with laughter. Dawn seemed to take pity on him and moved the conversation along a little bit, "So, what motivated you to ask her?"

He smiled a little, surprised by the question. "No one's ever asked me that before," he wondered aloud. Dawn smiled at him, and he chuckled nervously as he did his best to explain, "I don't know, I guess it was the way she listened to me."

"How do you mean?" Dawn asked.

He shrugged. "Well, she asked me a lot of questions you know, for the interview. She had a bunch written down so that she could guide the interview as best she could. But… well, she didn't end up using most of them, actually. She started with asking me what I liked most about training Pokemon, and then how I thought I might have been able to win the battle and… well, the conversation was just really natural. And she had this look in her eye when she listened."

Dawn smiled knowingly, "What kind of look?"

He felt his face heat a little. "Like she really wanted to hear what I was going to say."

May grinned at that, "Now that's about the sweetest thing I've heard all day. Oh, my goodness… I'm glad we made you tell that story."

Dawn smiled too, "Yes. It's not too often these days you hear about young people being captivated by something in each other the way you two were."

May shoved Dawn playfully, "Your Sinnoan blood is showing, Dawn!"

Dawn blushed a little and put a hand on her cheek, embarrassed. "Ah, that was a little too poetic, wasn't it?" she said with a laugh.

Another knock at the door caught their attention, and Ryuji rose to get it. He greeted his next guest, Brock, and invited him inside. "Ah, can I get you anything to drink, Mr. Lee?" he asked.

Brock smiled. "Brock will do just fine, my friend!" he said enthusiastically, pulling Ryuji into a _very_ tight hug. _Kantonese really_ don't _have boundaries_ , Ryuji wondered to himself. "And yes," Brock said, "I'd love a beer, if you have any."

Ryuji shut the door behind the man as he entered and joined the women on the couch and grinned. " _Now_ you're speaking my language," he said to Brock. "What'll it be?"

Brock played a little with the stubble on his chin. "Well, I hear you Johtoans are famous for your summer lagers," he said, "and seeing that it's summer time, I'd enjoy trying one of those if you have any!"

Ryuji snapped his fingers, "I sure do! I think I'll join you, matter of fact." He ran over to his fridge, pulled out two of the Cherry Blossom beers, and returned to his seat with the others, handing the second one to Brock.

Brock examined the beer with curiosity before opening it and taking a sip, and a look of surprise came over his face. "Woah! It's so… airy! Very sweet, too."

Ryuji nodded as he took a sip. "Yeah, it get's pretty hot up here in Johto during the summers, so we tend to favor a more refreshing taste than anything."

Brock nodded. "Yeah, no kidding. I _definitely_ didn't dress appropriately for the weather up here." He took another sip of his beer, then looked at Ryuji, "So, Ryuji was it?" Ryuji nodded and Brock added, "You're a trainer, I hear?"

He nodded, "I am."

"What kind of Pokemon do you favor?" Brock asked.

"Well," Ryuji said, wiping away some of the beer that had dripped from his chin, "I'm a fan of the more… intimidating ones, you could say. Dragons and mammoth monsters, I guess. I'm currently training a Dragonair— pushing for that evolution!— a Tyranitar, and a Steelix."

Brock's brow leapt, "A small team!"

Ryuji nodded, "Yeah, I find it keeps the team tighter over all."

Brock sat back with a smile, "I agree, I run a small team myself, actually have a Steelix myself. So, how do you make your living? Do you compete, or something else?"

Ryuji took a sip of his beer and then answered, "Well, I got my start working for the Goldenrod Gym, but about a year ago I started my own business and left my former employer."

Brock smiled, "Ah, another entrepreneur! I like that. What do you do, then?"

Ryuji nodded, glad to find someone who could relate with him. "I'm still training Pokemon, obviously. But now I run a private business where I help new trainers kind of… get their start, I guess. Basically, I teach new trainers _how_ to train their Pokemon."

Brock grinned and looked at both of the women seated next to him, "Well, isn't that a coincidence?"

Ryuji felt his eyebrows jump up. "Why do you say that?"

Brock gestured to May and Dawn, "Well, that's basically how Ash met these two. He mentored them as trainers for a time."

Ryuji sat back, finally understanding something a little better. "Kind of like he's doing for Suma, huh?"

Brock nodded, "Right, exactly. Ash has a unique style, and people with a sharp eye for training take notice of it."

Ryuji was about to say something when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It was Suma— she had just sent him a text saying they'd be there in a minute or two. He stood and said, "Ah, Suma will be here with Ash in a minute." They didn't have to wait long, as she pulled up very shortly after he got the text message. Suma and Ash made their way inside, and Ryuji pulled two more chairs from his dining table and put them next to his.

As everyone was getting seated, Dawn said, "Ash? Where are the others?"

Ash gave her something of a guarded look, "Uh, Misty is running an errand."

Dawn shook her head. "You know that's not what I meant."

Ash nodded, and after a moment said, "I couldn't speak with them myself..."

Dawn frowned, and Suma looked at Ash, "Who are they talking about?"

Brock answered for him, "Hilbert, Rosalind, Kalem and Hibiki. Champions of Unova, Kalos, and Johto."

"They were invited, too?" Ryuji wondered aloud.

Brock nodded, a little sadness in his eyes. "Misty and I are just a couple of Ash's old friends… but all of the others were once his pupils," he said, and glancing at Suma, "Just like you are now." Ryuji looked at Ash with a newfound sense of wonder, _This guy has trained_ every champion _from over the past twenty-five years…_

"Well, did they _say_?" May prodded.

Ash sighed and shook his head. "Misty talked with them several times, but they wouldn't be reasoned with."

Dawn's brow furrowed, "I don't understand, why _didn't_ you just talk with them? You're probably the person who would be best able to convince them of the danger they're in."

"My home burned down, and when the authorities searched the place not only did they find several dead bodies on the grounds outside," he explained, "but the found the burned up remains of Takahashi inside, assuming him to be the man that lived there all along. The only reason I'm not being pursued as a murder suspect is because the world thinks I'm dead. If I _had_ spoken with them, who knows what risk it would have exposed me to... or the _rest_ of you, for that matter." Several of their eyes fell and some shoulders sagged in grief. Ash held up his hands in a supplicating gesture. "Look, I'm just as troubled by all this as you are. Even more so by the decisions of our friends, but... well, they've made their decision. They won't be reasoned with, and it really isn't clear why," he finished. And with a shake of his head he said, "I think it's best if we just… move on with this meeting." Everyone nodded, and Ash proceeded, "So, we're all agreed that something needs to be done. Misty is out gathering some intel for us right now, but she'll probably be here within the hour. In the meantime, we need to figure out how to come at this thing."

May leaned forward, "Well, I mean it's pretty clear isn't it? We have to _stop_ them from making any more of these machines."

Ash nodded. "Right, I agree with that, only…"

"Only what?" May prodded.

"Only there are already several factories the world over already making them," Brock finished for him. "It's not like we can just shut down one factory and be done with it. And even if we _did_ somehow shut them all down, I doubt they would just call it quits." Everyone took a deep breath at that.

Dawn shrugged, "I don't really suppose that changes things, though. It certainly makes them more difficult, but that _is_ what must be done."

Suma interjected, "I don't suppose we know where any of these factories are located, or how many there actually are?"

"Not all of them," Ash answered. "Thankfully, some countries refused to manufacture them once rumors about the casualties during testing surfaced, so there are actually only five or so regions where Alpha Corp. could acquire licenses to build factories. On top of that, they are apparently _extremely_ difficult to make, so there are probably less then you might imagine."

"How many exactly?" Suma prodded again.

"I don't know," Ash said, shaking his head. "They've been very secretive about it— under claims that they're safeguarding company secrets and things like that."

"And what about the other thing?" May added. "The stuff about… about taking control of the _legendary Pokemon_? How are we supposed to come up against _that_?"

"It _does_ sound a bit incredible," Brock commented.

"If I'm not mistaken," Dawn mused, "the psyches of most legendary Pokemon are much more complex than others of their species."

Ash nodded, "Thats right. Actually, their minds are colossal even to a human being."

"And what's more," Dawn continued, "I've also heard that these machines are unpredictable where psychic Pokemon are concerned. The early prototypes had either no affect, or even _killed_ the psychic Pokemon."

May's brow leapt, "Why didn't they mention _that_ in the interview?"

Dawn shrugged. "Bad press, probably."

May shook her head, "Well, no _wonder_ people rioted. Is that still a problem?"

Dawn shook her head. "No, the Alpha Corporation says that there are no longer any possibilities of adverse effect on psychic Pokemon. It just… works, or it doesn't."

May had a hopeful look in her eye, "So, is it possible that these machines will just… not work on the legendary Pokemon?"

Suma shook her head. "I'm afraid it's not that simple."

All eyes went to Suma. "What do you mean?" May asked. Ryuji wondered the same thing.

Seeming a little nervous, she began. "When I entered my first battle, it was because I _had_ to. I had captured an Abra, meaning to learn a little from Ash about how he did what he did. You heard about Takahashi," she said, wrestling with a little emotion. Ryuji took her hand, hoping to calm her nerves, and she smiled at him and seemed to relax a little. She continued, "I was able to stop him because Abra and I joined our minds— we got the device away from him, destroyed it, and that was that. But while Abra— well, _Kedabra_ now— while we were of one mind, I could see and understand things the way he does."

"So, it doesn't quite work the way they say it does, I take it?" Dawn concluded.

Suma shook her head. "It's not really just their brain waves or whatever, sound frequencies and all that. I mean, yeah, their brains are a part of it all. But there's more to it than that. It's like the machine steps into some place inside them and removes them entirely."

Dawn wore a troubled look. "Hm...," she hummed at the thought.

Suma nodded, frowning a little. "I'm sorry, I know it's confusing. Kedabra doesn't really have better words for it than that. The last time we encountered Pokemon under the influence of the machine, all he could do was look at me with these _really_ sad eyes and say, 'Thats not even _them_ anymore'." Another congregational deep breath. Suma went on with a shrug, "I don't know— it's like there's something _inside_ them that's taken out of the picture entirely, something that makes them tick."

Brock's eyes widened a little, "You mean… like a soul?"

Concern washed over her features, but she nodded. "Yes. Like a soul."

Suddenly the front door burst open and in came Misty, dragging some half-crazed little man in a white lab coat behind her. She slammed the door shut behind her and then threw the man on the floor in the middle of the circle. He collapsed in a heap and then began to attempt to scramble to his feet, but a swift kick to the ribs from Misty leveled him and put him on his side again. She stood over him and stared him down, and once she seemed confident he wasn't going anywhere, she gave Ash a nod.

Ash gave everyone, though clearly startled, what must have been a try for a reassuring look. "Misty has been away most of the past week tracking our guest here— a Mr. Honda, if I am correct?"

The man started to grumble, but another kick in the ribs had him choking on his own spittle. Ash winced, as did the others, and Ryuji felt a wave of discomfort wash over him. "Answer the man," Misty growled.

After a moment, the man nodded. "I am Honda."

"Honda here," Ash said, "is a technician at the factory here in Goldenrod."

Misty grinned, "Oh, he's a little more than that. Tell 'em, Honda." The man grumbled a little more, but she seized him with a venomous grip on his hair, "I said _tell 'em, Honda._ "

Ryuji felt his discomfort begin to shift a little in his gut. "Do you _have_ to do that?"

She looked at him with a hard look in her eye. "These people, kid? They'll murder your gran'babies just as soon as sell you a computer. There isn't _room_ for _playing nice_ with these guys."

"I'll talk, just _let go of me_!" the man gasped. Misty complied— albeit a little violently, and Ryuji couldn't help but study Misty carefully as she retreated to the corner of the room. After panting and collecting himself a little, Honda began to explain himself, "I'm an administrator at Alpha Corp. I have worked directly under…" he glanced nervously around at the group, "under Noboru, for several years."

Misty grinned at Ash again, "He knows some pretty interesting things."

Ash gave her a disapproving look, and at that she backed off a bit. He looked at Honda and asked, "Can you tell us how the machine works?"

Honda chuckled with a shake of his head, "Not really. I mean, even if I _wanted_ to, I don't really understand it completely. No one really has the full picture, at least no one anyone _knows_ about."

Ash continued, "What _can_ you tell us?"

"Well, it doesn't work the way they _say_ it does," the man said. And when no one looked surprised, he went on, "I don't know much about how it does what it does to Pokemon. But as for the machine itself, it certainly doesn't run on _batteries_ or anything like that."

Ash leaned forward, "What do you mean?"

The man pulled himself up from the floor and sat cross legged, wincing as he did. "It's powered by some… substance of some kind. It's so classified that the only people who know about it aren't even allowed to have a _name_ for it."

May had an incredulous look on her face, "If it's so classified, how do _you_ know about it?"

The man sighed. "Because I'm the one in charge of overseeing it's transport from the facility where it's made to the factories that build the machines."

"They can't synthesize it in house at the factories?" Ash asked.

The man shook his head, "They can't _synthesize_ it _period_. It's harvested from... somewhere. They have a facility nearby where they salvage and prepare it."

Ash sat back, pleased with what he was hearing. "Do you know where this facility is?"

Honda nodded. "Apart from Noboru and the people who actually work there, I am the only one."

"And what would happen," Ash posed, "say, if someone disabled this facility, destroyed it even?"

Honda seemed to think about it, "Well,… this stuff is apparently _really_ hard to harvest, and it's in limited supply if what I've heard is right... if someone destroyed this facility, I suppose it could remove the machine from the market entirely."

Murmurs spread throughout the group, but Ash caught on to something Honda had said, "Limited? Does that mean… does that mean that eventually they will run out anyway?"

The man nodded nervously. "If what I heard is correct, then yes."

"That's not all," Misty chimed in from the corner of the room where she was standing. "Tell him about the special shipment." Honda glared at the woman, and she began to cross the room again, presumably to hit the man. But Ryuji had had enough. He stood and put himself between Honda and Misty. She stared daggers into him, "You don't seem to understand what's at stake, here, kid."

"Touch him again," Ryuji said, his discomfort now fully anger, "and I'll put my fist through your teeth." And she was taken aback at that, and that was good because he meant it to startle her. This whole being open and honest with his feelings thing was definitely seeming to work out for him. "I've punched a disobedient and angry Steelix in the face because he was about to level a house with people in it— you think being a woman makes you special? What you're doing to this man is _wrong_ , and it's _sick_ , and I don't care if the stakes are world domination or somebody's hurt feelings. You want to save the world from these people? Then don't stoop to their level."

His words definitely struck a nerve, as her eyes were clouded with emotion. But instead of saying anything, she turned on her heel, crossed the room and went out the front door, slamming it behind her. Honda behind him practically groveled, "Th-thank you."

Ryuji glared down at the man. "Whatever it is that's pushed her to where she is right now, I imagine that you people have something to do with it. And if whatever your boss is up to actually works out for him, the world is going to be _full_ of angry, grief-ridden people— people drunken senseless with pain, just like she is now." He knelt to look the man in the eye, "You think you'll be exempt because you played for the 'winning team'?"

Honda couldn't look him in the eye, and seemed to debate with himself internally. Then he shook his head and spoke, "The shipment she talked about. There's a special shipment being sent right now to meet him… Noboru. He's going to attempt to use the machine on a legendary Pokemon, and he's going to need a good deal of the stuff for it to work."

"Where is it going?" Ash asked.

Honda looked over at Ash, "Kanto. Cerulean City."

Brock said to Ash, "You know about a legendary in Cerulean?"

Ash sighed, and after a moment shook his head. "No. But we're going to have to intercept him anyway."


	3. Dilemma

**Chapter 3: Dilemma**

Suma checked the time on her phone, but mostly just to see if Ryuji had texted her. Right about now the ship he and his group were on would be arriving at Cinnabar and they'd be getting ready to hop on the ferry to the smaller islands to the south— that's where the facility was, apparently, built over the remains of the Cinnabar Labs. Ash didn't say anything when he learned of it's location, but by the look on his face she knew it had bothered him. It made sense when she thought about it; the whole place was largely avoided by the public because the authorities said it was radioactive or something. That must have been a lie, though, because some huge factory was operating right there and must have been for some time now.

Once they knew everything they could, most of them voted for a dual intervention. Ash didn't like it, said that he felt the odds would be better if they stuck together. He even argued that stopping Noboru was of greater importance than shutting down the factory. But, their discussion always circled back to the factory— even if they _did_ stop him, he wasn't necessarily doing anything _illegal_ , so he couldn't be jailed. And when his first attempt stopped, he'd just go back with more of the stuff to try it again. So, his objections to a two-party strike gave way and they formed two groups: one to head for Cerulean to confront Noboru, and another to go to the facility at Cinnabar to put a stop to productions there. Brock led the team going to Cinnabar, and with him went May, Dawn, and Ryuji.

And Ash led the team heading for Cerulean, Suma and Misty at his back. They all wasted no time, readying themselves and departing two days later. Suma and her group had boarded a train for Kanto and were now on a bus bound for Cerulean. She checked her phone again, this time to see how long it was until they would arrive— maybe a couple hours if traffic wasn't too bad. They sat in a little vestibule on the bus, walled off from other parts of the bus (designed with businessmen and businesswomen in mind who traveled often and had to conduct meetings whilst abroad). It was quite convenient for their needs, as they could discuss whatever they needed to without risk of being overheard by anyone. She actually had no idea what anyone might overhear, because she really had no idea what they were going to _do_ when they got there anyhow.

She shifted awkwardly on the uncomfortable bench as she stared out the window. Across from her sat Misty and Ash. Misty had conked out the minute the sat down, and she leaned up against Ash as she snored. Ash stared blankly out the window, lost in thought. They were an odd pair, the two of them. The more time she had spent in Kanto, the more time she spent with the two of them together, the more she wondered why it hadn't been the two of them who had ended up together… Probably it was because Misty was so hotheaded and Ash was often so clueless. If there had once been desire for intimacy beyond friendship, it probably would never have gotten out because she would have been too stubborn to say anything and he would have been too oblivious to both her and his own feelings. Suma shook her head and chuckled.

Ash looked over with arched eyebrows, "Whats so funny?"

Suma shook her head nervously. "Uh, nothing. So," she said, trying to change the subject, "you never did tell me about your first Pokemon." And there was suddenly a pained look in his eye. Whoops. _Way to go, Suma. Try to move away from a touchy subject and cartwheel right into another one_.

But then he smiled, apparently deciding to talk about it. "Pikachu. I've mentioned him to you before a couple times. He was the first Pokemon I ever trained."

"You never evolved him?" she asked.

He shook his head, grinning again. "He didn't want to. And I wasn't going to make him."

Suma smiled. "How long did you train him?"

Ash looked up at the ceiling, searching his memory, "Oh, goodness. we traveled together for some time! What was it… some twenty one years or so?"

"Wow!" Suma said. "That's probably the longest stretch I've ever heard of between one Pokemon and their trainer!"

Ash shrugged. "Hey, sure the guy slowed down a little as he got older. But we were a force to be reckoned with, speed or no," he said, winking at the last. "And he was more than just a Pokemon to me— he was my best friend."

Suma felt her brow leap. "Was?"

Ash nodded, seeming to tense a little. "Yeah, he… he died a while back."

"Oh, my," she said, feeling terrible for bringing it up, "I'm so sorry. Did he… did he just… get old?" And immediately after saying that she was compelled to strike herself in the face but couldn't because that would look just plain ridiculous.

Ash shook his head, practically laughing at her. "Oh man, you remind me of me when I was younger." She would have frowned at him but they knew each other well enough now for her to know that he was speaking not only with compassion but with truth— he had apparently been something of the "social gymnast" in his day as well. "No, my friend, it wasn't old age that took him. He was killed."

Her hand went instinctively to her mouth. "Oh my gosh…" She glanced out the window, "I-if you don't want to talk about it, we don't have to."

He shook his head again. "No, actually I think it would be good to talk about it," he said. "I've never actually talked about it with anyone other than Ami," and then he grinned, "besides you've made me talk about everything else at this point so why not?"

She chuckled nervously, feeling a little shame, "Y-yeah, sure."

He smiled, and told the story. "When I visited the Kalos Region, I got caught up in the plot of Team Flare."

Suma nodded, "I remember watching the story on Kotobuki when I was a teenager. They wanted to make some kind of huge weapon or something, didn't they?"

"Y-yeah, or something," Ash said. Then he shook his head, "They were going to take the ideas of team Plasma to the next level. Instead of just freeing Pokemon from the control of humanity, they were going to try and… well, they basically wanted to destroy the human race."

Suma sat back, an incredulous look on her face. "Is that even possible? What kind of weapon _was_ this?"

"I don't know a lot of the details, actually," he said. "My protégé at the time, a young man named Kalem, was more involved in it than I was. I had already started to pull back from others, but Kalem managed to rope me into it. He went to confront the leaders at Lumiose Tower while I kept some of the grunts busy. We were overrun and…" he paused again, tensing once more. "One of them tried to shoot me."

Suma leaned forward, "What, like, with a _gun_?"

He laughed at her. "Suma, your naiveté is charming but not everyone in the world fights fair. It's fine to see the good in people, and it's even better to want to bring it out in them. But we mustn't allow ourselves to be deceived."

She frowned. "Well, I'm sorry for what happened."

He nodded, smiling sadly. "Me too, Suma. Me too."

* * *

Gray and black swirled overhead, and thunder shook the deck of the boat on which they stood as it neared the little harbor. Through a handful of smaller islands they sailed, until they came upon a larger island perhaps two thirds the size of Cinnabar itself. It was almost entirely uninhabited— trees and shrubbery. But in the heart of the forest, or so said the townsfolk of Cinnabar, a large mansion once stood. It had been owned by a wealthy tycoon from Veridian City, a summer home when he wanted to get away from his duties as a gym leader there, they speculated. But it had been destroyed during some massive explosion there, or series of explosions (the news was pretty vague about all of it). This incident later became known as the Cinnabar Labs Incident— upon investigation, it had been found that the mansion was actually a front for some kind of experimental research facility.

Few used the ferry that took people out here anymore, mostly due to a general fear of the place on the whole (it was said that the man who had owned the place had been involved in some pretty nasty things). The ferryman was actually surprised to find he had customers that even wanted to sail among the smaller islands, let alone actually disembark upon one. Mostly he just took people— especially tourists— out for pleasure cruises about the ocean near Cinnabar. But, their coin was as good as anyone else's (even if they had to use a little extra to persuade the fellow), so he took them. Ryuji wasn't altogether glad that he _had_.

"I don't relish the idea of going back _t_ _here,_ again," Brock muttered.

Ryuji looked over at him, "You've been here before?"

Brock nodded. "I was here when it happened."

Ryuji's brow leapt, "The explosion? How did you survive?"

Brock smiled grimly, "There was no explosion, Ryuji. This island was the staging ground for an _awful_ Pokemon battle, between several trainers and a grotesque lab experiment. The man who owned this place— Giovanni— had been experimenting with the biogenetic remains of an ancient Pokemon, basically trying to resurrect it."

"Did he succeed?" Ryuji asked.

Brock shook his head, "Not quite. But he _did_ make something worse. After a gruesome battle between us and it— along with the mutated Pokemon it created— something about the bloodshed change it's mind about things and it just… disappeared." Brock took a deep breath and then said, "Ash actually died that day… well, for a few minutes anyway."

"Woah..." was all Ryuji could say. After a moment, he asked, "Well, What do you expect we'll find here _now_?"

All he did was shake his head, and say, "I don't know."

As they neared the little pier, a shabby stretch of planking jutting out from the obsidian shore, Ryuji looked on at the approaching forest with a turning stomach. The trees were densely plotted and the shadows among them were thick, but life did not crowd this wood the way it did so much of the rest of Kanto. The trees were no longer brown but a sickly gray, and were it not for incredible girth they would have long ago been smitten by the winds, for no life now flowed in them. No grass played about the land beyond the coal dusted beaches, but cracked and cream colored soil stretched on and on into the mist obscured distance. It was like something out of a bad horror movie, but the almost cartoon-like caricature did little to quell the nauseousness that gurgled about his gut.

They "made port", as it were, and bustled off of the little boat before the captain of the humble vessel made a few superstitious gestures and sailed back to Cinnabar. They had his number, so they could call him when they were done… whatever that would mean. "You alright?" May asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Ryuji nodded. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I guess it just occurs to me… that we really don't even know what we're going to do here."

Dawn nodded as they moved off the pier and onto the beach. "Yes, I suppose we haven't really thought it through, have we."

May shrugged, "What do you mean? We shut down the factory— simple as that."

Brock shook his head. "No, it's not that simple, May. There will be people inside, none of them probably too keen on us shutting down their operations. We'll not only have to shut down, but _destroy_ their machinery, and do it while holding them at bay. Ryuji's right— I wish we _had_ had the time to think this out a little more."

May sighed, "Well, do we know where we're going, at least?"

Ryuji nodded, pointing back at Brock, "Brock says he's been here before."

All eyes went to Brock, and he raised his hands in a gesture of mock surrender, "Woah— yeah, I've been here before, but that was nearly thirty years ago. I have no idea where we're going."

Ryuji sighed. "Well, I'll bet our best bet is to go through the forest— not too many other places to hide some huge factory or something."

She frowned, "In there? But its so… _icky_." Dawn laughed at that, which earned her a glare from May. "Hey, don't you—

"Shh," Ryuji hushed. Off in the distance Ryuji thought he saw some kind of flash, a red burst of light that lasted only a moment. "Did you guys see that?" he asked lowly.

"Why are you _whispering_?" May asked.

" _Shh!"_ he answered, for just as she had spoken he thought he heard a distant muttering or something. He stared into the wood, but couldn't see anything. Then a much brighter flash lit up the whole of the forest. _That's_ … And then he realized it, "Everyone, _get down!_ " he shouted. But too late— an incredible flash of light burst forth from the depth of the woods. The ground beneath it erupted in flame and ash as a beam of pure white energy tore across the distance between the wood and where they stood. The force of the initial explosion threw all of them from their feet, and most of them just fell away as it cut through the air about them. Most of them… Ryuji could only look on in shock as the Hyperbeam passed through May's torso and threw her from where she had been standing onto the black shore behind them. She screamed hideously upon the beam's impact and her body made a ghastly crunching sound as she collapsed on the filthy sand beyond, where she lay lifeless and unmoving.

" _On your feet, and get your Pokemon out, NOW!"_ Brock cried. Ryuji didn't have time to think, feel, react to what he saw. And for that he was maybe a little relieved. At the sound of Brock's voice he had a pokeball in his hand and threw it, releasing his Tyranitar upon the battlefield. Brock and Dawn stood at each of his sides, a Swampert and Typhlosion before them, respectively. At the edge of the tree line a man in black strolled out of the woods, a Mightyena at his side. "That was a cheap shot!" Brock bellowed.

"Yeah, well my pay check's pretty cheap," the man called back sarcastically. "I'm not paid to be classy."

"You're going to pay for killing her," Brock threatened, ignoring the man's morbid humor.

"Good luck with that," the man said, readying himself, "I'm broke enough as it is."

Another voice from just within the woods snarled, "Would you stop making stupid jokes?!" And a woman emerged from within the forest, a Houndoom at her side. "We're not getting paid to entertain them— we've been paid to kill them. So let's just do it so we can go home already."

The man shrugged. "Whatever," he said, and with a point of his finger he shouted, "Go, Mightyena!" The woman echoed his command and both Mightyena and Houndoom roared as they raced to clear the distance between them and their pray.

"Go, Swampert, Tyranitar, Typhlosion!" their voices cried in unison.

As he charged forward, Houndoom spit a ball of fire at where the three Pokemon stood, and Swampert responded by dousing it with it's water gun. The collision of the two attacks quenched the flames and evaporated the water instantly, producing a cloud of steam. Typhlosion used the obscurity to it's advantage and charged into the mist, catching Houndoom by surprise and tackling it. The two Pokemon began to grapple, exchanging bite for claw. Not too far away, Mightyena had recovered it's energies from the Hyperbeam it had just cast, and was preparing to cast another. Ryuji decided it was best to anticipate the blast, "Tyranitar, use Fire Blast— cancel out it's Hyperbeam!"

Tyranitar growled in response, and heaving an incredible breath, unleashed a fiery blast on the Mightyena. But Mightyena wasn't caught unawares, and it had recovered just in time. It cast it's Hyperbeam, and the two attacks struck each other with full force. Both Pokemon winced as their attacks were met with the other's, but they held their ground as they maintained the two beams. Each one took small steps forward when they could, and the collision point of the two attacks blazed and blasted the air with sounds like cannon fire. Ryuji was certain that Mightyena would tire before Tyranitar did, Hyperbeam required an incredible amount of energy in order to cast, let alone sustain this way. But if it was able to sustain it's attack for much longer, he also knew that Tyranitar would not be able outmatch it— Hyperbeam's high cost had a high payout.

"Tyranitar, give your attack a pump and then dodge to your left! As soon as your clear, charge Mightyena!" Ryuji shouted. Tyranitar seemed to gather breath through it's nostrils, and then pumped the Fire Blast as hard as it could. It worked as Ryuji hoped it would— the sudden burst in resistance caught Mightyena by surprise and it nearly choked on its own Hyperbeam. As Tyranitar shuffled off to it's left, the collision point of the two streams of energy exploded for a moment, and now Mightyena was not only debilitated from his overuse of the Hyperbeam, but he was blinded from the flash of light. _Perfect_ , Ryuji thought to himself, though his own eyes were dazzled a little. "Tyranitar, close in and use Dragonclaw on the shoulder of his right foreleg!" Ruyji called out.

Tyranitar began to move in but glanced back at him questioningly. He nodded, "I know, it's a little dirty, but we need to disable him— these guys are out to kill." Tyranitar nodded, then resumed his charge. As he drew nearer he raised his left claw, which began to glow a vehement red, and he swung down like a hammer on Mightyena's shoulder. The impact was incredible, sending Mightyena sprawling several feet back. After it came to a stop, it attempted to rise to its feet but could not— Tyranitar had dislocated it's shoulder.

The man in black spit at the sight and turned to run— he didn't even try to call his Mightyena back! "Oh, _no_ you don't!" Ryuji roared. "Tyranitar, use Ancient Power!" Tyranitar roared and lifted it's right claw as though it were grasping something heavy and raising it from the ground. Suddenly the earth between him and the fleeing man in black trembled and then cracked, a fissure splitting the ground. It snaked from where it began at Tyranitar's feet all the way to the feet of the man in black, whose entire lower body slipped into the forming fissure. Tyranitar raised both arms now and thrust his claws together like one fist grasping another, again moving slowly as though against incredible resistance. The broken earth that had claimed the man in black's lower body now closed in tight around his waist, trapping him where he was. He screamed against the pressure and fought to free himself, but could not. Ryuji grinned at the sight.

Near them Typhlosion and Swampert had disabled the woman and her Houndoom. As Typhlosion and Houdoom grappled, Swampert had snuck around to the side of the woman, flanking her at her blindspot. Brock had had Swampert use Sludge, covering the woman in a sticky ink that practically enveloped her. Where the woman had once stood now lay a mass of bubbling sludge with an angry, cursing face sticking out of it. When she had been captured, Dawn had Typhlosion lift Houndoom from the ground and chuck him right into the mass of sludge. While it was also now stuck and unable to free itself, Typhlosion used a Mega Punch to strike it's head and render it unconscious for good measure.

Ryuji looked at Brock, "Should we recall our Pokemon?"

Brock shook his head, "I'm glad you asked before acting— no, I'm not interested in being taken by surprise again." He spat, and crossed the distance between him and the man in black. He sat, crossing his legs and just staring at the man. He writhed and cursed and even spat at Brock, who sat unmoving and disinterested with his opponent's contempt. After several minutes the man seemed to give up and just stared at Brock.

" _What?"_ the man demanded after several minutes of silence. " _What do you want_?"

"We've come to disable your facility," Brock answered.

The man groaned, "Well, _good for you_! What do you want from _me?!"_

"You're going to tell me how to get inside safely, avoiding as many of your coworkers as possible," Brock said calmly. "And then you're going to tell me how to shut things down and destroy what's inside."

The man guffawed, an incredulous look on his face. "What makes you think I _know_ any of that?" he screamed.

Brock sat back, playing with the stubble on his chin. "Well," he said, "no one on the island of Cinnabar is aware of any amount of traffic between it and this island. In fact, the inhabitants of Cinnabar strongly _discourage_ anyone from attempting the trek— I know because once we had managed to even convince a ferryman to take us here, several of the locals approached us and tried dissuade us from coming at all. That leads me to believe that _no one_ comes to or from the island. Which means that anyone who is here _already_ must live here."

The man spat at Brock again, "Yeah? _So what?!"_

Brock calmly wiped the spittle from his face, and was silent for a moment. Then he said, "Take care with your attitude from here on out— I like to think of myself as a fairly rational man, but even I have my limits." The man just glared at him, and so he continued, "It matters because that means your population here must be pretty small. With no traffic to and from the island, your food supply must be grown on the island, and anyone who has attempted any sort of agricultural venture knows that it takes a lot of time and space to produce great quantities of food— two things I doubt you have here. That in mind," he concluded, "it's more than likely that the inhabitants of this island have to double between various job roles. So, you probably know more than you might appear to."

"Tsk," the man said. "What are you, some kind of wise a—

At the slightest sign of the man's continued insolence, Brock did not hesitate, but slapped the man full across the face. The strike made an angry clapping sound and left a smoldering red mark across the man's face, and the man yelped at the surprise of being sucker-punched. "As I said," Brock commented, "I'd much rather you be cooperative."

The man continued to glare at him, "I'm not telling you _anything."_

Brock sighed, then looked over his shoulder at Ryuji, "Ryuji, would you mind having Tyranitar let our friend here slip a little deeper into the fissure?"

Ryuji felt his brow crease. "What are you going to do, Brock?"

And now it was Brock's turn to glare. "Do it, Ryuji. We don't have time for this."

 _I don't like this_ , he decided. And he shook his head. "No."

Brock stared at him, and when he must have decided that Ryuji wouldn't change his mind, he rose and kicked the man right in the face. The strike again caught the man in black by surprise, and this time the blow knocked him unconscious. Ryuji felt his anger simmer as Brock crossed the distance where the man lay and the mass of sludge from which the woman's face jutted out. As he had before, he sat down and crossed his legs. "As our time is running increasingly short, I'll be brief— tell me what I want to know."

Hatred gleamed in her eyes, but Ryuji thought he also saw something else… fear? She glanced at where her comrade lay unconscious, then said, "Will you release me if I do?"

Brock chuckled, "Goodness, no. What, do you think I'm some kind of a fool? No, I just won't _kill_ the both of you."

"Pff," the woman exclaimed, "you wouldn't kill us."

Brock shrugged, "You killed my friend, the evidence is kind of hard to argue with. For all the authorities know, I killed you to defend not only myself but my friends and our Pokemon."

She watched him carefully for a short time, and when it was apparent to the lot of them that he was quite serious, she divulged what she knew. "You were right before— the team here is really small now, about twenty-five people to be exact."

Brock nodded, "Interesting. Shouldn't it require more of you to run such an important factory?"

The woman nodded. "About a month ago someone from Alpha Corp. showed up with a big ship at the southern end of the island, where the rebuilt harbor is," she said. "He took the majority of the staff— some couple hundred or so— away with him, but not before giving special orders to the Governor here— and his managers. We don't really know why we're here at this point, we're not even making that _stuff_ anymore _."_

"Also interesting," Brock commented. "Well, in any case, we still need to destroy as much as we can."

The woman sighed. "About a mile northwest of the southeastern corner you'll find a rundown old cave. It's unstable, so no one uses it anymore. But it leads to the old master bedroom in what's left of the residence. In a corridor just beyond it, you'll find _another_ passage that leads to the master control room."

Dawn shook her head, holding up a hand and interrupting, "Wait, wait— why is the control room for the _new_ facility connected with the _old_ residence?"

Brock looked over his shoulder at her, "Because the 'labs', or whatever they were, were never actually destroyed in the first place. I think they're underground, actually, and we never went down there when we were here. I'll bet they didn't even renovate very much when they moved in here." He turned back to the woman, "Is that about right?" She only grunted her assent, and so he asked the last of his questions, "What do we do when we get there?"

"I don't really know for sure, to be honest," she answered. "I've been inside the control room a couple times, so they could be sure I knew where it was, but there are only three people who actually operate it."

Brock held up a finger, "And I assume _they_ will know how to shut things down?"

"Sure, whatever," the woman said disinterestedly.

"Perfect," Brock said, smiling. "Are they expecting us?"

The woman guffawed, "Pff, what do _you_ think? We _were_ waiting here for you."

Brock shrugged, "Well, that's alright. Because they _won't_ be expecting us to come through the back door." Rising, he turned to the other two, "Shall we go, then?" And without waiting for any response, he recalled his Swampert and strolled off towards the woods.

"W-wait!" the woman cried. "You _must_ release me!"

Brock stopped and looked over his shoulder, "No, I mustn't. I'm not going to give you the chance to stab us in the back. You'll wait here until the authorities arrive, and _they_ will free you— that you may answer for you crime."

" _N-no_! You don't understand!" the woman bellowed, her voice cracking. "You _must_ let me _go!"_ She seemed to struggle within the mass of ooze, but could not free herself. Brock watched her for a moment, and then with a sigh moved off into the woods.

* * *

After a moment Dawn recalled Typhlosion and hurried after him, and Ryuji decided to follow— but he wasn't happy about it. Things were getting out of hand: someone was _dead_ and he had to have one of his Pokemon seriously injure another and they had only just arrived. And if he _had_ listened to Brock and had Tyranitar plunge the man in black further into the earth, it was more than possible for the fissure to shift and for him to slip into it entirely— a possibly lethal fate. He knew well enough what was at stake here, he did, but…

By the time he caught up with them, Dawn had stopped Brock and seemed to be asking him something. Brock shook his head after she finished speaking, and began to answer, but Ryuji only caught a part of it, "…sounds cruel, but that whole area is a crime scene now. If we bury her it could complicate our testimony with the authorities."

Dawn frowned and looked down at her feet. Ryuji thought he saw tears forming in her eyes. "I get it," she said. "I just… I knew what we were getting into, but…"

Brock nodded and put a hand on her shoulder, "I know, Dawn. None of us planned to lose each other. It's hard for me, too." He turned as Ryuji approached. He must have had a look on his face, because Brock appraised him, "What?"

Ryuji shook his head. "N-nothing."

Brock sighed. "No, you don't get to keep it to yourself. With what might lie ahead, we need to be on the same page. So, spit it out."

And after a moment, Ryuji spit it out. "You threatened to kill those people."

Brock nodded, "I did. And I hope they believed me." Ryuji felt his gut tighten a little, but then Brock said, "But I had no intention of actually killing them. Threats like those are the only things these people will respect. I don't like it, but I'll do what I have to do."

Ryuji crossed his arms, "You didn't seem to have much of a problem kicking that man in the face, Lee. On top of that, you asked me to trap that man in the fissure with only his head outside. Best case scenario, he probably would have suffocated because of the pressure on his body. Worst case, he could have sunk into it and been crushed."

Brock simply stared at him for several moments. Then he asked, "Why are you here?"

"W-what's that supposed to mean?" Ryuji asked.

"You heard me," Brock said. "Are you here to prove you're a good person? To save the world from the bad guys? Why did you agree to all of this?"

He actually didn't know how to answer that. And rather than endure the torture, he just said it. "I don't know."

Brock nodded. "Yeah, I kind of figured that. Let me tell you why _I'm_ here, and maybe you'll come to some kind of conclusion for yourself."

Ryuji scratched his head, "A-are you sure we have time for this?"

Brock almost glared at him, "We'll _make_ time." It was clear he was going to have to hear what the man said, so Ryuji just nodded and the man explained. "Over the past thirty years I have had to deal with people like this— Team Rocket, Teams Aqua and Magma after them. Many more sprung up even after _those_. I've watched them make hostages of innocent people to extort money. I've watched them mutilate innocent Pokemon and sell their dismembered body parts as good luck charms. In Johto they used radio waves to send an entire population of Pokemon into such a frenzy that their combined rage produced storms with the force of a hurricane, miles from any ocean. In Hoenn two _opposing_ teams tried to awaken sleeping, ancient Pokemon in an attempt to _radically_ change the geography of the planet— the skies poured rains that flooded an incredible amount of the country, killing thousands; and then the sun glared down at incredible degrees of heat, burning thousands more to death."

Brock gestured with an arm to the area around him as he continued. "And _here_? Here they desecrated the remains of an ancient Pokemon to create something that had no desire to be created, and in it's outrage at having to exist it murdered it's creators and then brainwashed and mutated dozens of Pokemon with the intent of exterminating the human race on the whole." Brock paused, and looked off in the distance. "The news, the talk in the gyms and the coffee shops… this is as far as they can see. They are captivated by the flames of the hell that have ravaged our world. But I don't believe that's the worst of it."

He looked over at Dawn. She wasn't listening to either of them— the break in their push forward must have made her aware of the emotions churning within. She leaned against a nearby tree, weeping silently. Brock looked back at Ryuji. "Dawn just watched her best friend die. She's faced threats to her wellbeing so many times because she decided to get between people who wanted to control and hurt others, and the people and Pokemon they wanted to hurt and control. The first time I was hospitalized, I had gotten caught in a stampede of Tauros— Team Rocket was trying to capture them en masse with taser rods and sleeping gas." He shook his head at a thought, almost smiled, "I couldn't get near a Pokemon battle for several months, the panic attacks were… they were too much. And Misty, one of the first Pokemon she ever had was the orphaned child of Pokemon Team Rocket tortured and killed. On one hand, she was inspired to devote much of her spare time caring for abandoned and abused Pokemon, but on the other, she also has anger problems that have put her in mental hospitals more than once. Ash has witnessed more than I can tell you, and it wounded him so deeply that he moved up into the mountains and refused to talk to anyone for almost ten years."

Brock looked him in the eye again, but as he spoke Ryuji found his gaze drifting and then fastened to the dirt beneath his feet. "And Suma?" Brock said. "She'll probably never forget what she saw that day. Does she talk about the nightmares, yet? Does she call you in the middle of the night, hysterical because of them? What about you, how do _you_ feel about it? Do you ever find yourself wishing you could just give her _a few hours rest_ , without having to wake up in the middle of the night, terror stricken and soaked in tears or urine or vomit?"

Brock put a hand on his shoulder, "Look at me, son." Ryuji hesitated but lifted his eyes, and Brock said, "I'm here, Ryuji, because _that's_ what hell is— its the rotting of the soul that steals on us when men make evil decisions, and rob us of our peace or health or loved ones, or our very lives. It's the numbness that stifles us when we _make_ evil decisions like those. I won't kill those people because, if they live, they may one day get to experience remorse for what they've done; they may get their souls back. And I don't hold back from them because to so do would dismiss the depravity of what they are doing. The hell they would visit upon the lives of the people of this world, I'm here to prevent it. Doing anything less would dishonor the lives of those who sacrifice for it, who _are_ sacrificed for it."

Ryuji looked at him, and understood. "I'm… I'm afraid."

Brock nodded. "I know. You're afraid to step fully into the flames, but that's the only way to fight now. Why do you think you're afraid?"

Ryuji sighed, but after a moment speculated, "I guess… I guess I'm scared that I can't protect... her."

Brock smiled. "You _can't._ You can't protect her from the flames because people like this will _always_ spread them. But you can fight back, fight _with_ her. It's the only way to stop our hearts from being smothered by the hell that's coming— we fight, and we fight together."


	4. To Grasp at the Neck of a God

**Chapter 4: To Grasp at the Neck of a God**

Misty appeared from within the gym and returned to where she had left Ash and Suma waiting. "North," she told them as she neared where the stood on the sidewalk. "They went north."

Ash nodded. "Past the bridge?" he asked.

Misty shook her head. "Apparently not, no. They are _on_ the bridge. I've been told they even got the city to seal it off, somehow."

"That's interesting," Ash muttered.

Suma gave him a puzzled look, "Why is that interesting?"

Ash shook his head with a sigh. "Alpha Corps. is a privately owned corporation. It shouldn't have this kind of domestic influence."

Suma nodded, understanding. "Oh. Yeah, usually that's a bad sign," she said offhandedly.

Ash raised a single eyebrow and looked at her, "What does that mean?"

"What?" she asked, surprised by the question. She scratched at the back of her head, "Well, when you work in public news for a few years, you cover a lot of the scandals and stuff, begin to notice the trends of how they work."

Ash nodded. "Ok, go on."

"Well, usually whenever there's unexplained cooperation between civic authorities and big business," Suma explained, "there's some kind of corruption afoot."

"I see," was all he said in response. And he was right, Suma decided. It _was_ something to be concerned about. But something told her that he had more on his mind than a closed bridge. But he turned and with a wave of his hand said, "Well, let's get moving. Misty, did they have any other information for you?"

She nodded as they followed the sidewalk west towards Bridge Street. "The road was closed down days ago, I guess. A large shipping truck arrived the next day, was let through the barriers and apparently parked somewhere on the bridge. The driver just walked back and hopped on a bus. And earlier today, four people showed up in town and went through the barriers on foot. They're still up there."

They turned the corner and began to head north. They weren't far from the bridge now. "Anyone we know?" Ash asked.

Misty took a deep breath, and stopped walking. Ash didn't notice, and Suma called after him, "Ash, wait."

He turned, and worry clouded his features once he noticed the troubled expression Misty wore."What is it?" he asked.

She looked him in the eye, and hesitated before saying, "Well, _he's_ with them— Noboru. But… The Baum's are with him. Hibiki, too." Ash frowned, and Suma didn't have to ask why. They had once been his students, some of his dearest friends. And now they were with a man who was not only responsible the for deaths of hundred of Pokemon, but who wanted to subject _even more_ of them to his control, with little regard for the sanctity of life… She didn't know how people could become so deceived, to believe in something like _this_. But it was probably a much more bitter pain for Ash, and for Misty. And without a word then turned and continued on their way.

* * *

"W-what _are_ they?!" Ryuji cried.

Brock shook his head in disbelief. "I see it, but… but I don't want to believe it." They stood just beyond the cave entrance, staring into the shadows at eyes that stared back— the feral eyes of corrupted Pokemon.

After heading into the forest and searching the area a little, they had been able to find the cave the woman mentioned. She told them that this place had been inhabited by hundreds of people, and now by something like thirty. She said they would be expecting them, though they would at least have the element of surprise. But as they had moved into the forest, they found it to be an even ghastlier place than the hideous beach that greeted them upon arriving. The decrepit limbs of the long dead trees clotted the ground beneath their feet like so many splinters sadistically plunged into rotting flesh. And as they moved deeper into the wood, strewn amongst the gnarled limbs of wood were human remains.

They had to stop several times as each of them got sick more than once stumbling about the forest, trying wholeheartedly to avoid any contact with the milk-white bones all around them. And they did find the cave eventually, but it wasn't uninhabited like the woman had told them it would be. It was crowded with Pokemon, who were now emerging from its depths. But they were deformed, and monstrously so. Their skin and fur had a sickly pallor, and they were misshapen— too muscular in some places and gaunt in others. Three Charmeleons, two Ivysaurs and a Nidoqueen. Their eyes were aglow and they drooled with anticipation, hungry for another meal.

"Brock, _what are they_?!" Dawn demanded, readying a Pokeball in hand.

He gritted his teeth as he readied his own Pokeball, "These must be the remaining Pokemon from the experiments that had been performed on this island thirty years ago."

" _What_?" Ryuji growled. "How could they still be _alive?!"_

"I don't _know_!" Brock answered.

Ryuji frowned as the Pokemon before them began to surround them. "Tch! Well, I guess that explains all the bones all over the place."

Brock nodded, "No wonder the woman wanted me to free her so badly. I'll bet none of them even _left_ this island like she said they did."

Dawn wore a look of horror, "You mean… you mean they had these Pokemon… _eat_ them?!"

Brock shrugged, "With how they've been doing things, it _does_ make sense. A few hundred people walking around with intimate knowledge about your ethically nefarious business operations? Sounds like a liability to me."

Ryuji pointed at the Pokemon that had surrounded them— there was no escaping now. In all actuality, there probably never had been. "Uh, guys?"

Brock sighed. "Yeah I know. Ryuji," he said looking his way, "you do realize these Pokemon are only interested in one thing, right?"

He nodded, "Yes, I realize that. What are we supposed to do?"

Brock was quiet for a moment, then released the Pokeball containing his Steelix. "There's only one thing we _can_ do, Ryuji. I've fought these things before, and even being seriously injured wasn't enough to stop their killer instincts. It's kill or _be_ killed now, son."

* * *

"Ash?" the woman cried as they approached. "What are you _doing_ here?"

Before them stood a young woman, probably not but a few years older than Suma herself. She was tall and wore a yellow sundress with black tights, and her brown hair was swirled into two buns at the side of her head. Just behind her stood a man who seemed to be of the same ethnicity and likely the same age, though he didn't notice their approach until the woman had said something. He was slightly shorter, wearing white cargo shorts and a blue shirt, and his messy brown hair jutted wildly out from a very strange hat that had no top on it. Ash slowed as he approached, keeping a distance from where they stood, and from the other two people some hundred yards beyond them that were working with a very large machine of some kind— like a supercomputer. Suma and Misty slowed with him, letting him take the lead. "Rosalind, you know why I've come," he said.

The woman gave him a slightly puzzled look, "What, what are you talking about?" She said it almost offhandedly, as if she didn't really hear it. She turned and tugged at the sleeve of the man behind her, "Berty, _look—_ he's alive!" She seemed genuinely excited to see her old teacher, and so did the man with her.

"I'm glad to see you, too," he said, smiling a little. "I didn't want you to have to worry about me, and that's partly why I had Misty call you in the first place."

Rosalind shook her head, "But why didn't _you_ just talk to us? Do you have any idea how we _felt?"_ Emotion contorted her face, a mixture of both joy and renewed grief.

The man she called Berty took her hand, saying to Ash, "As soon as we could we got time off from work— we had to find out if it was really true... Those bodies they found, and the man inside... We _really_ believed you were gone, Ash. What happened?"

"That's the _other_ reason I had Misty call you," Ash answered. "A man came, carrying one of those Alpha Machines, and used it on my Charizard. He had Charizard _murder_ Ami, and then he shot two more people. After we stopped him, he got away and threw himself into the burning remains of my home. It's _his_ body they found there, not mine."

"Thats... that's _terrible_ ," Rosalind answered, her hands rising to her mouth as tears began to form in her eyes.

"Why didn't you go to the police?" Berty asked.

"Hilbert, do you think they would have listened to a single thing I had to say?" Ash asked him. "Four dead bodies on my property, one of them killed by my own Pokemon... nobody even _knew_ about the Alpha Machine yet. I would have looked guilty."

Hilbert sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But... that still doesn't explain why you didn't _tell_ us you were ok."

Ash hesitated before telling him, "That's because the man who wielded the Alpha Machine, the man who killed my wife and two other people? He worked for your boss."

"Not something I can just say over the phone," Misty added.

Rosalind looked from her back to him, seemingly speechless. "I... I don't know what to say," she muttered.

Hilbert gently pushed her aside and stepped in front of her, a more serious look on his face. "Not that we're not glad to see you, teacher, but… why are you here?"

"We reached out to you because we learned something from that man," Ash told him. "He told us that your product— the Alpha Machine— was designed with a specific purpose in mind. Your boss wants to control legendary Pokemon."

"What was his name?" Hilbert asked him.

"What?" Ash asked.

"The name of the man that attacked you, what was it?" Hilbert clarified.

"What does that matter?" Ash asked him, a little irritated. "Takahashi, his name was Takahashi," he said.

Hilbert looked at his wife, "Ring any bells?"

She seemed to think, then shook her head. "No, I don't know of anyone with that name ever being licensed during the beta testing."

Hilbert nodded, "As I thought." He looked back at Ash, "During the beta testing, every single device that existed had to be registered, and it's user licensed with the company. Rosa was in charge of tracking the usage of the machines at the time. If she says she doesn't know who he is, then it means he doesn't work for Alpha Corp. The guy who attacked you was probably some psycho who stole the machine from one of our field testers— makes sense, actually, as more than a couple went missing throughout the process."

"Is that _Ash?!"_ another voice interjected. Another man was running up to where Rosalind and Hilbert stood. He was definitely from Johto— shorter than both of them, black hair, a trendy red hoodie and short black pants. He was probably ten years older than the other two. "I can't believe you're _alive!"_ he exclaimed.

"Yeah, not dead, definitely alive," Ash muttered quickly. "Hibiki, can you explain to me just what it is you think you're doing here?"

The man started to answer, "Well—

But he was interrupted by a gruff voice just behind them, "Now, now, young Kogane. Don't do an old man's talking _for_ him, hm? You'll spoil his fun." Rosalind, Hilbert, and Hibiki turned to find the older man that was with them had stepped away from fiddling with his machine. He wore a black suit and had a pencil thin mustache, and his black hair was slicked back with a sheeny grease. "Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Ketchum. You're a little early, young man, but I suppose the bigger the audience the better the show, eh?"

Ash glared at the man who stood before him as he placed himself between him and his former pupils. "You seem to have worked very hard to deceive my pupils, Noboru. Are you _that_ determined to get my attention?"

The man laughed sincerely, though cruelly. "Your _attention_? Why, my boy, I think you've grown a little prideful in your middle age. If I had had need of you, I would have had my employees extend an invitation. Nevertheless, I knew you would come and am glad you're here."

"What?" Rosalind interjected, surprised. "You _knew_ he was alive, Mr. Noboru?" Hilbert and Hibiki seemed a little perturbed as well.

The man's eyebrows leapt and he winced a little, "Whoops, said too much!" But he shrugged, "Oh, well."

Ash tried to peer around the suited man and look his old friends in the eyes, "I don't know what he's told you, but you're not here on some bland business errand."

Misty practically stomped her foot as she exclaimed, "He's going to try to awaken a legendary Pokemon!"

"Yeah, we know," Hibiki responded.

"You _know_?!" Misty bellowed.

"Well, yeah," he said, almost humorously. "We didn't agree to work for Alpha Corps. because we thought the pay was good. We wanted to be a part of the advancement of our society, and few have ever attempted parley with one of the elder Pokemon, many less have succeeded. If he had some reason to keep the knowledge of your safety from us," he speculated aloud, trying to sound reassuring, "then I'll imagine he had good reason for it. It would probably have distracted us from our work."

"What has he told you?" Ash asked him. "That you're just going to… talk to it? Ask it meaningful questions about training Pokemon?"

"I think you've said quite enough, Mr. Ketchum," Noboru interrupted. "Forgive me, I said you were early— you're actually a little _too late_."

Ash looked past them at the machine, and then seemed to understand. He looked at Hibiki, "What does that machine do?"

Hibiki turned to look over his shoulder, "Well, it's basically a larger Alpha Machine. It communicates with the cognitive faculties of Pokemon."

Noboru held up two fingers and grinned, "Ah, but with two major differences. _This_ machine is capable of communicating with legendary Pokemon— bigger brains, bigger machine." He said the last with a chuckle and a wink, then went on, "But even better, it communicates with Pokemon that exist beyond our dimension."

Hibiki seemed surprised, "Wait, what?"

He turned to look at the man, "Oh my, yes. Though I suppose it's only natural that you'd be confused— of our present company only our friends Mr. Ketchum and Ms. Williams were among those who had dealings with them." He turned back to Ash, "You see, I didn't choose this location arbitrarily. A mutual friend of ours once dwelled among the caves in the mountain to the northwest— not too far from where you lived yourself, actually. I didn't really understand why until later, but he chose it because he was _drawn_ here. Because this place is as close— figuratively— as he could get to where it resides."

"What? What are you…" Ash began, but then caught onto something the man had said. "Wait… mutual friend?" he asked. He watched the man carefully, then said, "Do… do you know me?"

The man laughed, "Oh, my boy… have I really aged so terribly? Why, we enjoyed quite the Pokemon battle not too far from this very city! Though I suppose it was some decades ago… I was a gym leader then." He fidgeted with his mustache, saying the last almost to himself. "Yes, I know you. When we met, you were but a child. I guess it's no surprise you wouldn't remember me— our only meeting lasted not but an hour or so."

"A gym leader? Near here?" Ash wondered. "But the closest gym other than Cerulean is—" he stopped suddenly as he spoke, and his eyes went wide. "Veridian… You're… you're _Giovanni?!"  
_

* * *

Ryuji and the others had been able to defeat the first group of feral Pokemon they encountered without too much difficulty— once they realized how wild these Pokemon were at heart, and once their _Pokemon_ saw that this was a battle for their lives, the fight became much more wholehearted for all of them. They were forced to disable the lot of them, but apart from a few broken bones they would be fine. They moved off into the cave and encountered some strays here and there— mostly Golbats and Raticates. After their third encounter, they elected to have Dawn keep Typhlosion outside of his Pokeball. His flames would illuminate their way and he was more than enough to deal with one or two at a time.

And they found the master bedroom, just as the woman said they would. It was crowded with darkness the way a jungle is crowded with heat— thick and heavy. A thin line of daylight was the only light in the room, and it cut through a place over to their right like a knife. A window, Ryuji assumed, probably veiled by curtains. "Should we pull back the curtain?" he wondered aloud. "Might make it easier to find our way to the corridor where the other passage is."

He felt Brock grasp his shoulder, "Yeah, go for it. Be careful though, we have no idea what else could be in the room." He let go and probably turned to where Dawn stood, lingering back a little in the passage they had just emerged from. "Dawn, do you wanna have Typhlosion come out ahead of him? Light his steps a little."

"Sure," Ryuji heard her voice respond. "Typhlosion, can you help him out?" A grunt was followed by a steadily increasing glow, and then light dispersed the shadows a little as Typhlosion emerged from the doorway. Typhlosion came forward and looked Ryuji in the eye. After a moment, it stuck out it's hand, as if it were asking for a handshake! So, Ryuji took it and gave it a shake, and then Typhlosion bared his teeth at him in a wide grin— he was smiling at him! Then he moved off a little to the right.

Ryuji looked over his shoulder, amused, "Dawn, did you teach your Typhlosion to shake people's hands and smile at them?"

"I sure did!" she answered cheerfully. "Wait, did you initiate, or did he?"

"He did," Ryuji answered.

"Oh, thats great! He hasn't initiated it much yet!" she exclaimed. "He must like you," she said with a giggle.

Ryuji chuckled, "Heh, well thats good for _me_ , I suppose— after watching him deal with those last few Raticates, I would hate to be on his bad side." He turned and looked over to the right. He had been correct— a window was there and was covered by a heavy curtain of some kind. He stepped closer and attempted to pull at it, and with some effort he was able to draw it back. Light burst into the room and revealed a couple more windows along the same wall, as well as three windows opposite them on the adjacent wall. Dawn crossed the room and unveiled these as Ryuji opened the other two up, and then the room was much more visible than before.

Ryuji turned around to inspect the room. At one time, it must have been quite the sight. A luscious red carpet, a bed that had to be at least a third larger than any king-sized he'd ever seen, fine wood drawers and wardrobes, plush upholstery… But it wasn't what it must once have been. The curtains were tattered, the carpet had faded and the furniture either collapsed or crushed or splintered. The room itself was quite large, perhaps almost as large as his entire flat. "I can't believe how big this room is," Dawn muttered.

"I was just thinking that myself," Ryuji commented.

"Which door do you think leads down to the master control room?" Brock asked. Ryuji looked around and realized that there were actually three doors leading out of the room— two on the northern wall and another on the southern wall. But one of them was sealed up, heaped over by stacked furniture and blocked off. A couple toppled wardrobes, several chairs, whoever blocked it off used whatever they had to and as much of it as they could. They must have been determined to keep something on the other side from getting in…

With a deep breath, he pointed and said, "Probably that one. The woman said the passage was in a corridor, and that the master control room was a part of the labs— right?"

Brock nodded, "That's right."

"Well, isn't that where most of these Pokemon came from?" he asked.

"He's probably right," Dawn concluded. "But… who was hiding out in here?" she wondered.

"Probably these guys," Ryuji heard Brock say. He turned around to find Brock kneeling next to the bed. The outer leg closest to the western wall was collapsed, but it was a large enough bed for there to still be room underneath it. Something stuck out from beneath the bed, and Brock lifted the bedding to reveal a pile of bones underneath.

Dawn began to cross the room, moving towards where Brock was. "What, what is it?" she asked.

Ryuji held up a hand to halt her and gave her a warning look, "You don't want to see."

"It's more bones isn't it," she said apprehensively.

Ryuji nodded, "It's more bones."

Brock let go of the bedding and got to his feet, rubbing his hands on his pant legs. "A couple pelvises but only one skull… probably two people. They must have blocked off that door at some point, hoping to hold up in here."

"Yeah, well, lot of good it did them," Ryuji chided.

"What are they doing under the _bed?"_ Dawn questioned.

Brock shook his head, "I don't know."

"Any idea how they died?" Ryuji asked.

Brock hummed at the question and knelt again, leaning in to get a closer look at them, "Well, they appear to be thoroughly gnawed… They're practically _whittled,_ actually. And the teeth marks… they're tiny." After another moment he nodded, "Yeah, I'm guessing that whatever Pokemon ate these was probably very small."

"A small Pokemon killed two people, mutilated their bones and then hid the remains under the bed?" Dawn summarized, incredulous.

"I didn't say it was _rational_ ," Brock admitted with a shrug, rising to his feet again.

Ryuji frowned and said, "Let's just unblock the door and get the heck out of here."

"Seconded," Dawn said as they began to move towards the easternmost door on the northern wall. As they began removing furniture, Ryuji found himself puzzling through what must have happened on the island. That woman said that the island was all but empty now, and about _that_ she hadn't been lying. But he doubted whether anyone made it off the island. No, Brock was probably right about that: if the admins from Alpha Corps. came at all, it was probably to loose the mutant Pokemon on the island— get rid of the evidence and all that. What he didn't understand is why they would off their own employees… weren't the materials they made here necessary for their operations? She also said they had _stopped_ making the stuff almost made their whole trip _out_ here seem—

 _Now wait a minute_ , he thought. Those two, the man and woman in black, they were _waiting_ for him and they others… But they must have known that the island had been overrun by these feral Pokemon... Why would they _wait_ around at the risk of being killed? And she said that they were getting _paid_ to do it... No, there… there was something more going on here—

A soft squeal overhead disturbed his thoughts, and his eyes instinctively lifted towards the ceiling as he lifted another chair out of the way. He nearly dropped it when he did a double take to confirm what he saw, and he put it down gently and moved quietly to where the other two were removing the last of the furniture. He cautioned them in a whisper, "Stop... You guys— stop, stop stop." They slowed and came to a halt, listening to him "Be very quiet," he said. "Put down the furniture, and look at the ceiling." They both gave him a look, but did as he said. And they both stifled sharp intakes of breath at the sight.

Nothing of the ceiling itself was visible at all. In the darkness, it would have been impossible to see anything, and the room was so large that one would have had to deliberately look up in order to look at it anyway. But overhead, their feet grasping the ceiling and their sickly, gray bodies hanging upside down, was a horde of Zubats. They were small, probably still very young, but they definitely appeared large enough now to be able to fly, and their fangs were certainly large enough to pierce flesh— but small enough, perhaps, to create the markings on the bones that had found. Worse, they had begun to stir, their little squeals spreading throughout the nest.

"Oh, my Arceus…" Dawn muttered, fear in her voice.

"Keep calm," Brock whispered, studying the nest carefully. "Do your best to be quiet about it, but… but keep going. We need to get out of here immediately."

The other two nodded, and they resumed the work. After removing another chair as well as a long, low-standing dresser, all that remained was a tall wardrobe that had been left against the door as the primary defense. With a glance at his friends to ask for their help, Brock began to lift the piece carefully, Dawn and Ryuji coming to his aid. They didn't need to move it far, just enough to open the door and get out. They moved slowly, taking each step carefully as they lugged the huge piece of furniture. But suddenly Dawn's hand slipped and she lost hold of it: with a great thud, it crashed to the ground, the sound practically thundering throughout the room.

All three of their eyes lifted to the ceiling, where the soft squeals had entirely ceased now. The Zubats were perfectly still, and seemed to almost be searching for the source of the sound. After a moment they drew in breath, and as one released the most piercing chorus of shrieks any of them had ever heard. And in seconds the room became a swarming hell as a thousand, mutant Zubats— hungry for blood— detached from the ceiling and flooded the open air like the winds of a storm, their little teeth tearing into their clothes and into their flesh.

* * *

The machine beyond where they battled roared terribly, and something in the air began to make Suma feel sick. Kedabra could sense it as well, she could feel the trepidation emanating from him. _Don't get distracted,_ she urged him as he dodged another Vinewhip from Hibiki's Meganium. Near him, Ash's Charizard battled with Hilbert's Emboar while Misty's Starmie fought Rosalind's Samurott. Both of their battles were intense— Starmie and Samurott danced like graceful warriors and exchanged riposte for thrust, while Charizard and Emboar bludgeoned each other with fire and fist. But it was nearly all Kedabra could do to keep up with Meganium; he had only just begun to explore his potential in combat, while Meganium had competed and triumphed against the Elite Four.

 _Something is_ wrong _, Suma,_ Kedabra said, speaking into her thoughts. She thought he seemed disturbed, perhaps even frightened.

 _I know, I can feel it, too,_ she replied. _One thing at a time._ Kedabra nodded and resumed his efforts to impair Meganium's motor functions. He was still so young, and he shouldn't have access to some of the powers he now did. But the trauma he had experienced only a year ago awakened his mind, forcing him to deal with his expanding psychic presence. Abra's capacities soon became to great for his present body and mind to contain, and he had been forced to evolve. And his innovation hadn't stopped there— Abra's terror-provoked Confuse Ray inhibited the motor functions of those afflicted by it in ways such a technique ordinarily didn't. And now Kedabra favored this technique, though it was difficult to land. But once it was successfully carried out, a Psybeam would frazzle the mind along with the motor functions and he would have effectively carried out a one-two-K-O attack.

"Did you _know_?!" Ash's voice tore through the sounds of battle. Suma's glance was torn from the battle between Kedabra and Meganium to where Ash watched Hilbert angrily.

Hilbert sighed, but his resolve seemed to be unshaken. "Yes, I knew. I mean, I didn't learn until later but… I knew."

"Then how could you be a _part_ of this?!" Ash roared.

"Do you have any idea of the _possibilities_ before us?" Hilbert asked him. "Breaching an alternate dimension, befriending an ancestor to all Pokemon… the way we look at _everything_ could well be changed forever!"

"This isn't _about_ the advancement of our world, Hilbert," Ash retorted. "A man interested in the good of our world doesn't send his henchmen to kidnap and murder people!"

"I _told_ you that the man who attacked you wasn't one of us!" Hilbert insisted.

"How can you _believe_ that?!" Ash demanded. "How could you take the word of a man like _Giovanni_ over me?!"

"Because this is what he's wanted _all along!"_ Hilbert said. "He wants to bring the world together, create a new age under the wisdom of inter-dimensional Pokemon!"

For _Arceus' sake,_ Hilbert," he bellowed, "he's not interested in _making friends_ , with it— he wants to _control_ it!"

"You're wrong!" Hilbert answered, and at the snap of his finger Emboar, Samurott, and Meganium all disengaged from their individual battles to stand side by side. "It's time," Hilbert said, glancing at his comrades, "it's not going to be enough to distract them anymore."

"He's right," Hibiki said to Rosalind, "They're determined to stop us."

She seemed to wrestle with whatever it was they were telling her, and her brow furrowed as she said almost to herself, "I had hoped that maybe we could persuade them but… I think you might be right."

Hibiki nodded. "Ok, keep them busy," he told them. Then he looked at Meganium, who was watching him closely. "Get it ready!" he commanded. Meganium purred, and it closed it's eyes and clenched it's jaw as energy seemed to gather at it's back, its face trembling violently.

Ash's eyes went wide, "She's charging a Solar Beam! If we can strike her it will not only disable her attack but cause the energy within her to implode!"

Misty nodded and thrust her arm out toward Meganium, "Starmie, use Swift and get past the other two to strike Meganium!" Starmie cooed and became a flash of light whirling about the air. But Samurott was prepared and used Swift itself, and the two flashes of light continued to strike each other vehemently again and again, dozens of times within a handful of seconds— tearing the sound barrier with sounds like thunder. Hilbert had Emboar use a move called Flare Blitz, and it spat several bursts of great flame that flew like cannonballs and exploded on contact with _anything_ like a bomb. It was all Kedabra could to to avoid being caught in the fire, but one of the resulting explosions tore up a part of the road which flew through the air and hit Kedabra right in the head, knocking it to the ground.

"Kedabra!" Suma called out. She was glad she had been preparing Kedabra with physical training as well as psychic exercises, but even so it's body was naturally more fragile than non-psychic types. The blow not only shocked Kedabra but seemed to disable it for the moment. Which wasn't good, because now Emboar just continued to spit it's fiery bombs at Charizard who could only take shelter within the folds of it's wings. It didn't take long to prepare a Solar Beam, maybe only a handful of seconds. In battle that was enough to turn the tide, but this particular Solar Beam was taking quite while to charge.

"Ok!" Hibiki shouted. "She's ready!"

"Good!" Hilbert answered. He lifted his hand to his mouth and whistled sharply, and one flash of light struck another to the ground, taking form next to Meganium as Samurott, while Emboar spit one last burst of fire that pelted Charizard brutally. "Now, do it!— _Tri-attack!"_ Hilbert commanded. Meganium clenched it's jaw and lifted it's head to the sky, then threw it's head forward and dropped it's jaw. An incredible beam of energy erupted from it's mouth, and into the stream of trans-mattered sunlight Samurott blasted a Hydropump while Embroar spat a Flamethrower. The three attacks combined into one and the whole area seemed to explode in light, sound, and superheated matter.

The explosion threw all of them to the ground— Suma, Ash, Misty, Hibiki, the Baums, and all their Pokemon.

* * *

Suma gasped as she came to consciousness, her head throbbing and her body sore in several places. She did her best to lift herself from the ground, but could only get as high as her arms would take her. As she looked around, she wondered that the bridge hadn't collapsed. The road was torn to gravel by the explosion of energy, and Ash and the others were clearly unconscious as well. Suddenly fear stabbed at her like a knife and she searched for Kedabra— and she was relieved to see him standing up nearby.

 _I recovered just in time to use Barrier,_ he told her. _I managed to stop the attack from physically reaching you all, but the force of it was still incredible._

 _Thank you_ , she told him. _You saved our lives._

A voice interrupted their exchange as Giovanni emerged from the smoke before them. In his hand he held an Alpha Machine, and he grinned into Suma's face evilly. "You're too late," he declared. And he held the machine aloft, pushing a button with gleeful laughter. Then the very air seemed to wrench open and tear like paper in a vice, and something poured in from somewhere else— like water through the teeth of a pitcher. From one reality into another it came, and it overwhelmed her mind. It was the same sensation she had been fighting ever since Giovanni had begun to play with the bigger computer, but it was no longer muted. She got sick and could no longer hold herself up, rolling about in her own filth.

But with the last of her strength she looked up as Giovanni held his machine in one hand, and in the other clutched at the neck of a small, pink Pokemon with a long tail. He laughed maniacally he pulled it's face uncomfortably close to his and commanded it, "Become one with me! _Submit yourself_ to my control and _exalt_ my mind to that of a _god's_! Let us become a _new being!"_ The little Pokemon writhed under his grasp, but began to glow a jarring white before it exploded in prismatic color. This blast of energy was too much for Kedabra's barrier, because it was something that belonged to another realm. It washed over her like an ocean and her mind succumbed to it's overwhelming power as she passed into unconsciousness again.


End file.
